Steam for Linux

I recently installed TF2 on my PC which is supposed to be able to handle it and it seems that i cant get it to work. I always have like 90% CPU usage and 30%GPU usage. I have tried lowest settings and resolution but still i lag. It is smooth while in waiting room but when the fight starts everything turns out to be unplayable. I have tried playing with ubuntu 12.10 and now i am on 13.04 . Kernel 3.8.0.5. With Asus radeon 6450 HD (latest 13.2 Catalyst installed).

Your card is pretty anaemic for gaming stuff - I've got a test box with a 5450 (the predecessor to yours) and it doesn't cope well with newer games.

Combine that with the fact that AMD have only recently started a development push on their linux drivers, and it is understandable that you get better FPS in Windows.

TF2 had a significant update in 2010, so it's not as friendly to older hardware anymore.

My laptop has a similar CPU to yours and it's borderline for games like this. I wouldn't splurge on a new card at this point because you're still going to be bottlenecked by your CPU and your RAM (especially by Ubuntu standards) is pushing it. 2GB is still more than adequate for Linux nowadays but you've picked one of the fattest distros out there.

Well i previouslt had an Nvidia 8400GS which died after 4,5 years of use and i bought a radeon. It was cheap and i wasnt expecting to play any games on my computer because there simple werent any available. Anyway the problem exists with alot of games. Trine 2 for example uses only 50% of my cpu and GPU. as a result it has 17fps. Shank 2 sometimes feel laggy too. I think my cpu is powerful enough for these games. (this computer is old it is from 2007.)

Can you say more about the CPU? From that time and those specs it seems like it might be a Pentium D or a Celeron chip, and those were extremely anemic compared to more modern chips that are on the market.

Keep in mind that Valve is currently optimizing for Ubuntu 12.04 (and the Unity environment) to begin with, and that 32-bit is still the safest bet. Although many have successfully run Steam in other versions and even distros, I can attest to this setup working well. TF2 and all of my other higher-performance Steam Linux games run smoothly, and my system isn't really anything special. (The nVidia drivers also happen to be a little ahead right now, as Valve and Canonical have been working closely with them.)